Has anyone ever tried peppermint oil pills (enteric coated) to help with the bloating? I have read that if you have reflux disease the peppermint oil pills can be especially troublesome, but if you can get past the discomfort of the reflux, then the pills can have beneficial results. Just wondering if anyone has had success with it. Thanks.

Hi, I have been reading about everyone's problem with stomach bloating and weight gain.

I am age 67 and have the same problem. In November 2005, I began to feel bloated all of the time. I began to gain weight, not much, but I gained a total of 6 pounds in 4 months. Prior to this I weighed 109 pounds. I know 6 pounds of weight gain is not much, but I'm 5' 4" in height and this extra weight makes me feel miserable.

I will admit my diet is not exactly a healthy diet, but it's the same as it's been for years. In fact, I eat less now than I did before I gained the weight. I feel full all the time, even when I don't eat. I've tried a cleanse for the digestive system. I've even tried fluid pills but neither have helped.

I talked to my doctor. He said there was nothing he could do unless I started having pain. He wanted to say it was the food I ate. Tried to tell him my diet had not changed and that I eat less now. I am also very active and at my age I burn a lot of calories.

My stomach [right below my chest] will bloat up like a basketball, hard and round. It feels like a braxton-hicks contraction like you get when you are pregnant and close to due date. I feel very uncomfortable and just want to go lay down somewhere. I'm ashamed that my stomach is just suddenly protruding out like that and I don't want anyone to think I am pregnant. I'm 42 yrs old, and this problem started about 1 year ago.
Please let's don't stop talking about it, and trying to get to the bottom of it, as I am so desperate for an answer. I have no insurance and I'm trying to figure it out on my own through internet. I am wondering if it is all caused by dairy and wheat as so many of you mentioned. At work tonight I ate a donut [filled long john] and then my stomach immediatly stuck out and I felt terrible the rest of the night while working, just because of that stupid donut, which I never should have eaten. [lol]
I will be reading with interest everything you all find out.
I'm thinking of starting the atkins diet and see if it helps.
thanks.
tr

hello
I was just google-ing to see if there were anything on the topic of what i'm experiencing and this site stood out the most.
I have been reading everything everyone wrote about the bloating and I wanted to put my 2 cents about what i have because i am so sick of the way my body looks its rediculous!
and here is what...

****I had my son March 2006 i gained about 70lbs in my pregnancy and was all good health wise until my very last appointment before i was to have baby.
That's when my doctor diagnoised me with PREECLAMPSIA or another word for it is TOXEMIA.

I went into the hospital that night and my blood pressure was super high...everything was being monitored everything felt fine, my water broke but i wasn't dialating fast enough...so i had a C-Section...
They gave me a lot of drugs that i don't even know what but they took him out weighing 9lbs 6.5 oz..... big baby...
now he's 1yrs old and my stomach still looks like i'm 5-6 mo pregnant and i've done every excersize in the book every diet in the book! Lost weight but my stomach is still the same?!!!
Is there anyone out there that can show me the light and give me a clue to what is happening to my body??

nanu01 - this happens to everyone after having a baby to some extent... when you have a baby your skin has to stretches massively and after birth it cannot 'shrink' back to what it was... particularly if you had to have a Casarian section... it is one of the side effect of having a baby i'm afraid...

I have had problems with this for years, always kick started by several courses of antibiotics! Kills all the good flora in the gut bacteria builds etc.

Anyway how i have got rid of the problem in the past. Colon Hydration. A series of these (4-6 sessions) gets rid of any blockage, helps tone the colon which can become slack and not work efficiently also any build up of mucus (which can build due to constipation) and bad bacteria is washed away. It sounds horrid but when your bloating calms down and your enegy level rises and your not hungry all the time even though you feel stuffed, you can hardly wait to go back.
Before this i saw doctors, specialist (which you should ALWAYS do first) then i tried natrupath (helped a great deal but took 9 months) then the next time it flared up i went down the colon hydro road and it took several weeks. Of course it may not fix everyone but i found it made me feel great. Also lots of Yukult or Inner Health tablets. I also watch what i eat not as a diet but way of life! First off NO white flour/bread - high fiber only. lots of fresh everything vegies fruit and water. (I know when you are still bloating this is a killer particularly cabbage, brocoli and cauliflour) no white rice or if so once in a blue moon, no fatty foods etc. Oh and i walk for at least an hour every day - excercise helps also.

Also i was told by a gastro specialist hot water before and after a meal helps the digestion system. I dink at least 4-5 glases of bioled water a day (same temp as your tea or coffee). I sometimes put a cinimin stick some lemon and ginger( very good for the gut). just to break it up a bit.

My heart goes out to all of you as i know how horrid and soul destroying this can be. also i know cause i am going through it yet again - bloody anti-biotics.

HI All,
Well, I hate to say it because you all have already said it so many times, but I am not alone!! It feels good to know that I am not alone! I have had the symptoms of bloating, weight gain, and misery for years. I am 48 years old, and this has been going on most of my life!
The symptons are obviously bloating...constipation....not complete constipation, but more like when I go, I just rarely totally empty out, but when i do, I can tell, and the difference is incredible, and the bloating does go away! The problem is, it just comes back again. I have always blamed it on the way that I eat. I have never really eaten healthy, and at one time in my life (late teens and early 20's) had the symptons of anarexia. Now I have the other opposite problem, which is over eating, so I definately have always had food issues! I have always thought that my eating disorders have been the culprit, but have heard no one else mention that?? Everyone else out there seems to be eating healthy. Another sympton that I have, that I have not heard mentined here, is water retension!! This I have been to the doctor for, many a time over the years. I have been on a water pill since my children were born 25 years ago. The water retension has always been as much of a issue, as the bloating, more so really, and I have come to believe they are closely related. The water retension at times is horribly bad. My ankles and feet swell horribly! At times my legs also. I have knelt down many times, to feel as if I have some kind of knee pads on my knee! Of course the hands, and face also...I might as well just say the whole body! When on a rare occasion I really empty out, and my bloating is completely relieved, my body starts releasing the water too, it is almost as if everthing is just stuck inside, and is causing the bloat
I have been put on Zelnorm for the bloating and discomfort in the tummy.
The water pill for the water weight. I do also have the pain or really discomfort on my upper right side, which someone did mention earlier, and said that could be gall stones, well they checked my gallbladder, and that came back normal. I don't know about you guys, but my Doctors have never seemed very concerned about any of this, the gallbladder test, and yes they checked my heart for congestive heart failure, but that is as far as they have gone. Have any of you experience the water retension, or have any ideas about that.
Sorry this is so long, this is the first time in my life, I have ever joined an online forum of any kind....it is new to me.....that is how you can know, that as I read your stories.....I knew I needed too join.
Oh one last thing....when my bloating and missery is at it's worse, and I feel full to the eyebrows.....I feel compelled to eat all the more....now am I crazy or what??? Is there anyone else out there like that? Thanks for listening....any help would be appreciated!
Sparkle

I am a 34 year old male in good health. In general, I eat pretty healthy and I go to the gym 4-5 times a week. However, I have been trying to figure out a stomach/GI issue that I have been dealing with for the past couple of years. When it started a couple of years ago, it only occurred every once in a while. Then it started happening a couple times a week. Well, in the past 5 months, it has been occurring every day and has become progressively worse. Basically, I am dealing with abdominal bloating/distention and intestinal gas. When this issue started a few years ago, it seemed like the intestinal gas was the more prominent issue. However, it is the daily distention that is affecting my quality of life. It is extremely uncomfortable and sometimes downright painful (the pressure); not to mention it can potentially be embarrassing. When it is bad, I don’t feel like doing much and the pressure buildup also leads to more frequent urination. I have tried many things that don’t seem to help. Basically, it starts off in the morning where I am slightly bloated, but it isn’t too bad. I would say on a scale of 1-10, it starts off at about “2-3” on a daily basis. Then throughout the day, the gas pressure/bloating builds and peaks (anywhere from 7-10 on the scale). It seems like it peaks in the early afternoon during the week because I start my days early. On the weekends, it seems to peak in the late afternoon because I usually eat breakfast later than during the week. My doctor is perplexed because these are the only symptoms. Because my symptoms don’t include any elimination issues (i.e. diarrhea, constipation, etc.), he says that IBS and other similar diseases/issues are unlikely; I don’t fit the profile. I have tried the following supplements/items, but none have worked:

My doctor tested me for Celiac disease and for the H. Pylori bacteria. Both of these blood tests were negative. Recently, I took the lactose intolerance hydrogen breath test and found out that I am not lactose intolerant. I also had an abdominal ultrasound. The results were normal. The only thing noted was that there was a small mass on my gall bladder which the doctor wasn’t at all concerned with. He said that it is most likely a cholesterol polyp which is nothing to worry about and would not cause the symptoms that I am experiencing. My hem-occult slide test was negative, too.

I have been keeping a daily food journal to see if there are any specific food items/groups that seem to cause these symptoms. However, I have been unable to find ANY correlation between items. At this point, my doctor seems to think that I have some type of food intolerance (not allergy). However, I am a bit confused with this because I am waking up bloated. I thought that symptoms from intolerance would disappear overnight. Before, I thought that I was starting at “0” in the mornings, but I just didn’t realize that I was actually waking up slightly/moderately bloated. I tend to hold my stomach in because it helps with my lower back pain. Currently, I am taking probiotics 3 times a day and a good digestive enzyme with meals. Unfortunately, I haven’t noticed much difference. It has been about 1.5 months w/ the probiotics, about 3 wks for the enzymes, and about 5 days for the HCI w/ Pepsin supplement. My doctor is now recommending that I have a HIDA Scan for gallbladder functioning, which I scheduled for next week.

Any information that may help relieve or resolve this frustrating problem would be very much appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

I'm coming into this thread a little late, but I'd like to add something.

Our digestive systems are a combination of complex chemical mix in the stomach and small intestine and complex ecosystem in the large intestine. Just as many thing change during our lives, our chemistries and the make-up of our intestinal "buddies" changes as well, not to mention our metabolism beyond our guts.

The tricky part is, not only can something that doesn't bother me bother you, because of the way it interacts with your chemistry but not mine, something that didn't used to bother you can (and even come and go), based on lots of factors. There are common culprits, many mentioned here, but there are odd ones, too, and you may have a fairly rare thing going on.

So experiment. Don't assume that some things couldn't possibly be at fault - try to skip almost everything you eat, one at a time or grouped, long enough to get a feeling for how they might be involved in your discomfort. Keep records, be responsible for solving the problem, and don't assume you know what's going on - a reaction to one item might be from a processing chemical rather than that actual item. The tricky thing might be that your reaction is to some combination of factors, and that could be almost impossible to narrow down.

When something works, it may have nothing to do with what you think it's doing (like the colon cleaning mentioned above - the "reasons" make no sense in terms of how the system works), but if it works for you, it works.
Don't know if that helps.

I came upon this Web site and thread a couple of days ago and have been reading it and recognizing symptoms exactly like my own.
I have always had stomach issues. At one time I was diagnosed with IBS, but it is such a broad diagnosis, it is almost a catch-all for several symptoms that doctors don't know how to treat.
My history includes a battle with an eating disorder since my teens and I know that I have definitely messed my body up from that. I have been eating disorder free, so to speak for 2.5 years now, and still feel the effects.
This whole thing is so bothersome, painful and scary for me. I am vigilant about what I eat, always aware of approximate calorie intake because that helps me stay on track and not fall back into active eating disorder mode. Of course I will always have issues and am okay with that.
Anyway, since I am careful about my calorie intake, it ranges anywhere form 1200 to 1800 daily, it does not make sense that I am gaining weight now. I have had these symptoms before: bloating, heartburn, pregnant-looking stomach, but they usually subside after a couple of hours. Lately, it has been lasting pretty much all day. And now it is accompanied by weight gain. I gained about 6 pounds in the last four months. It is very scary for me, because I am not overeating and this is a "former" anorexic’s worst nightmare.
The only thing I can attribute this major recurrance of my problematic symptoms to be, is that I have been taking an antibiotic for that last three months, 1500 - 2000 MG of Cephalexin. I am wondering if this screwed up my already sensitive digestive system.
Lately I have been trying to keep a record of what might be triggering this with a food diary. It is hard to say. Sometimes I can eat a soy product, or dairy product and I am fine, sometimes I am not.
If anyone has any advice for me in the following areas, I would really appreciate it:
1) What type of doctor is the best to treat this? Are homeopathic doctors better suited than traditional docs?
2) Should I be on something to counter the antibiotics-which I must remain on for one more month? If so, what should that be? Probiotics? Anything else??? What types of enzymes?
3) Does anyone know what this can be? It seems like it takes a very long time for food to go through my system.
4) Why does this cause weight gain if my caloric intake is relatively low?
5) What types of testing should I have done? I just had an annual gyn exam and had my doctor run a thyroid test, results are pending.
6) I would like to start an elimination process of foods to check for sensitivities. What foods should I completely avoid? I know dairy and wheat products, gluten etc... Anything else??? And could anyone suggest foods that would not upset my stomach that can basically act as a base line diet while I bring back certain suspected food culprits one at a time?

I came upon this Web site and thread a couple of days ago and have been reading it and recognizing symptoms exactly like my own.
I have always had stomach issues. At one time I was diagnosed with IBS, but it is such a broad diagnosis, it is almost a catch-all for several symptoms that doctors don't know how to treat.
My history includes a battle with an eating disorder since my teens and I know that I have definitely messed my body up from that. I have been eating disorder free, so to speak for 2.5 years now, and still feel the effects.
This whole thing is so bothersome, painful and scary for me. I am vigilant about what I eat, always aware of approximate calorie intake because that helps me stay on track and not fall back into active eating disorder mode. Of course I will always have issues and am okay with that.
Anyway, since I am careful about my calorie intake, it ranges anywhere form 1200 to 1800 daily, it does not make sense that I am gaining weight now. I have had these symptoms before: bloating, heartburn, pregnant-looking stomach, but they usually subside after a couple of hours. Lately, it has been lasting pretty much all day. And now it is accompanied by weight gain. I gained about 6 pounds in the last four months. It is very scary for me, because I am not overeating and this is a "former" anorexic’s worst nightmare.
The only thing I can attribute this major recurrance of my problematic symptoms to be, is that I have been taking an antibiotic for that last three months, 1500 - 2000 MG of Cephalexin. I am wondering if this screwed up my already sensitive digestive system.
Lately I have been trying to keep a record of what might be triggering this with a food diary. It is hard to say. Sometimes I can eat a soy product, or dairy product and I am fine, sometimes I am not.
If anyone has any advice for me in the following areas, I would really appreciate it:
1) What type of doctor is the best to treat this? Are homeopathic doctors better suited than traditional docs?
2) Should I be on something to counter the antibiotics-which I must remain on for one more month? If so, what should that be? Probiotics? Anything else??? What types of enzymes?
3) Does anyone know what this can be? It seems like it takes a very long time for food to go through my system.
4) Why does this cause weight gain if my caloric intake is relatively low?
5) What types of testing should I have done? I just had an annual gyn exam and had my doctor run a thyroid test, results are pending.
6) I would like to start an elimination process of foods to check for sensitivities. What foods should I completely avoid? I know dairy and wheat products, gluten etc... Anything else??? And could anyone suggest foods that would not upset my stomach that can basically act as a base line diet while I bring back certain suspected food culprits one at a time?

Cephalexin cause well be the cause... And before you consider other things I think you should see your doctor about this because it is quite an important issue... Antibiotics do not differenciate between harmful and harmless bacteria... They destroy useful bacteria involved in digestion... This is why diarrhoea is such an extremely common side effect of them... and especially since you are taking a high dose for such a long period of time... the more major concern is that if you have such bad diarrhoea - you aren't absorbing the antibiotics properly and so you wouldn't be fighting off the infection...

Btw, if your GP is getting nowhere then ask for a referal to a consultant gastroenterologist... Homeopathic 'doctors' are not qualified to be called doctors and I personally have a major issue with them because someone I know was told not to take his angina medication and take homeopathic medication instead and two weeks later he died of a heart attack...